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Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes; the lake
was named after Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, an officer in the
British Indian Army. With a surface area of 68,800 square kilometres (26,600 sq
mi), Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake by area, and it is the largest
tropical lake in the world. Lake Victoria is the world's 2nd largest freshwater
lake by surface area; only Lake Superior in North America is larger. In terms
of its volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth largest continental lake, and
it contains about 2,750 cubic kilometers (2.2 billion acre-feet) of water.
Lake Victoria receives its water primarily from direct
precipitation and thousands of small streams. The largest stream flowing into
this lake is the Kagera River, the mouth of which lies on the lake's western
shore. Two rivers leave the lake, the White Nile (known as the "Victoria
Nile" as it leaves the lake), flows out at Jinja, Uganda on the lake's
north shore, and the Katonga River flows out at Lukaya on the western shore connecting
the lake to Lake George.
Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa and
has a maximum depth of 84 m (276 ft) and an average depth of 40 m (130 ft). Its
catchment area covers 184,000 square kilometers (71,040 sq mi). The lake has a
shoreline of 4,828 km (3,000 mi), with islands constituting 3.7% of this
length, and is divided among three countries: Kenya (6% or 4,100 km2 or 1,600
sq mi), Uganda (45% or 31,000 km2 or 12,000 sq mi) and Tanzania (49% or 33,700
km2 or 13,000 sq mi).
Lake Victoria has got several tourism destinations that are
not fully visited for tourism and the Lake has got places for honey moon
travelers which include the following:
Bulago islands
Take off your shoes, wrap yourself up in a nice soft kikoy
and heed the wise words of the Jungle Book’s King Louie:
‘Unwind yourself’ Pineapple Bay, Where you can lounge on a
Lamu bed, looking out to the sparkling waters of Lake Victoria. Where you can charter a fishing-boat and head
off with rod and tackle to fish for the legendary Nile Perch. Where you can arm yourself with binoculars
and roam for kilometers over this unspoiled island paradise in search of
hundreds of birds who make this their home.
And then come back and plunge into the dark blue pool or go with the
chef to the organic gardens and choose your own pineapple, your own avocado,
and your own greens to have for lunch.
Pineapple Bay, Where you can take your shoes off and keep
them off until you get back to the mainland.
Where you can climb to a breezy hilltop and enjoy an ice-cold sundowner
with a 360 degree view, or lie in your bed with your morning tea and in your
view is nothing but Lake Victoria and all her glory.
Kalangala islands
A three-hour sail across Lake Victoria is as much a relaxing
expedition as it is a scary one. Along the way, a cool breeze will blow your
stress away. If you are travelling by ferry, spare some time on the balconies
and you will have a good view of the islands on Lake Victoria, birds taking a
swim or perched on logs as well as the waves hitting the ferry. Your writer,
like many local tourists, was hydrophobic, but this is something that anybody
can soon get over after two trips on the world’s third largest fresh water
body.
There are two or more routes to the Kalangala Archipelago.
You can use the ferry through Entebbe, at Nakiwogo.
This takes you three hours. It usually sets off at 8am and
charges Shs10, 000 for an ordinary ticket and Shs15, 000 for VIP.
Alternatively, one can pass through Masaka, at Bukakata landing site off Masaka
Highway. The ferry here is free of charge. The first ferry takes off at 7am.
The rest keep ferrying people every two hours till 7pm. From Bukakata to
Kalangala is a 30-minute sail across the lake.
Regardless of how you get there, when you are finally at the
island, you realize that the hassle was worth it. Kalangala opens up to a
virgin rural look from a fishing village dotted with semi-permanent shelters.
These are your welcome points to the archipelago, the first pointer of an
untapped tourism destination.
Some of these shelters are people’s homes while others are
restaurants, whose assimilation to the word restaurant is the fact that they
too, serve something close to a meal made of fish, matoke and tea. If you are
patient, you may have a more sophisticated meal at one of the decent facilities
on the island.
Ngamba islands
chimpanzee sanctuary
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